


Forever at His side to walk--

by wendelah1



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: 100-1000 Words, Character of Faith, Community: where_no_woman, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-29
Updated: 2010-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-08 10:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendelah1/pseuds/wendelah1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If God made the stars, why can't we visit them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever at His side to walk--

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Intergalactic Women's Day ficathon, prompt 19:  
> You, who are on the road  
> Must have a code  
> That you can live by.

The first time Katie Miller saw the starship was on the way home from visiting Grandmother Sarah in the hospital. She was seven years old and while it wasn't her first trip to Iowa City, it was her first time visiting the University Hospital. That had been exciting, too. So many people, so many tall buildings. They had ridden up in an elevator all the way to the eighth floor to see Grandmother. She was sitting up in a chair next to her bed, while her daughter Esther, Katie's mother, brushed her hair out. Katie had helped her grandmother with her bathing while her mother went out into the hallway to talk with her father. While they were gone, the nurse had come in to attach a long tube with a bag of water at the top to her grandma's arm. The nurse said her name was Madeleine, but that Katie could call her Maddy. She had a nice smile and wore a funny-looking short dress with her name and University Hospital embroidered on the front. The embroidery wasn't nice, though. Katie thought it was machine-made embroidery. They had a picnic lunch on the grass by the hitching post. Katie had hoped to eat in the hospital's cafeteria but her parents said there wasn't much real food there, just the kind that came from machines.

All that was forgotten the moment she saw the ship. Of course, everyone in Kalona knew about the Riverside shipyard. It had been there since before Katie was born, perhaps even before her mother was born. It took a long time to build a starship, her father explained. It was like a small city, built to hold everything that the travelers would need on their journey. She leaned out from the carriage, craning her neck trying to take it all in at once. It took up half the sky. It was the most beautiful thing Katie had ever seen, gleaming silver, shimmering in the summer heat.

Two of Katie's brothers worked at the shipyard. Her mother was not happy about it, but the job paid plenty of credits, much more than working at the quarry. "We can grow our food and save seeds and raise chickens, but some things still must be bought from the English," her father had explained when it came time for her oldest brother to leave school to go out to work. Plus, many credits had to be saved if the boys wanted to marry, to build a home and provide for a family.

Her father didn't work at the shipyard. He made furniture, like his father had, and his father's father. People came to their house to look at it. They ordered chairs and tables, and came to get them, driving in their noisy, smelly trucks with big wheels. They stared at her. She didn't like that. There was nothing wrong with how she looked. She looked plain. Her mother told her that the English didn't know any better.

"You need to forgive them and let it go," her mother had admonished her. "Come help me shell these butterbeans. Maybe that'll help take your mind off this foolishness." Katie did as she was told. She did not like the English but she did like their ship. Sometimes when she dreamed it was about being on the ship, sailing off through the great dark to the distant stars.

"Did God make the stars?" she asked her father one day, while she watched him shape the wood for the table top he was making for one of the University teachers. He stopped and put his work aside.

"Why would you ask such a question, Katie? You know full well what the answer is."

"If God made the stars, why can't we visit them, like the English do? We help them build the ships but have to stay behind." Katie liked the spaceships. This seemed unfair.

"No one is forced to join the church. It's a choice we make, a choice to devote our entire lives to serving God. We hold ourselves apart in order that we may best serve Him," he said, choosing his words carefully. "Your mother and I hope when the time is right, you will make that choice." He looked closely at this child, his youngest daughter. This one, with her sharp mind and her need to know the answers to everything, was going to be a challenge. They would need to find a way to channel that intelligence and drive or they would wake up one day to find she'd gone off to find the answers for herself. When school started up again, he would talk to her teacher. He would look into the private Mennonite high school. Better that than the English-run one in Iowa City, even if it was free. He sighed. He had better start saving his credits and saying his prayers. Only seven and already she was asking for the moon and stars. What might she be like at seventeen?


End file.
